Shakespeare

plural Shakespeares · alternative obsolete Shakespere · alternative obsolete Shakspeare · alternative obsolete Shakspere

1. countableuncountableA surname.

   1 more example

   The name Shakespeare occurs from the 13th century on in the records of various English counties. The first Shakespeare as yet discovered in Warwickshire is one Thomas, a felon, who fled from the law in 1359. Toward the end of the fourteenth century there were landed Shakespeares at Baddesley, and this family held its own into the sixteenth.

   1913, Katharine Lee Bates, Lilla Weed, compilers, Shakespeare: Selective Bibliography and Biographical Notes, [Wellesley, Mass.]: Wellesley College, page 33

   1. countableuncountableWilliam Shakespeare, an English playwright and poet of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

      Synonyms: the Bard, Shakey

2. countablemetonymicallyuncountableWilliam Shakespeare's works or media adaptations of his works.

   He is reading Shakespeare.

   1 more example

   I'm surprised that even the allusion to Hamlet flew over his head. Even someone who barely knows Shakespeare might catch that one!

3. A place name:
   1. countableuncountableA village in Perth East township, Ontario, Canada, named after the playwright.
   2. countableuncountableA ghost town in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States.

plural Shakespeares · alternative obsolete Shakespere · alternative obsolete Shakspeare · alternative obsolete Shakspere

1. uncountableAny form or style of language that is eloquent, especially in English; poetry.

   This may not be poetry, but in competition with "Ryan has good velocity and excellent location" it is pure Shakespeare.

   1979 October 10, Russell Maker, “Highbrows Ruin Baseball's Language”, in Toledo Blade

2. countableA playwright of the standing of William Shakespeare.

   Caine, he said, might be a budding Shakespeare but in Shakespeare's time all it took to put on a play was a barn, a crude stage, […]

   1997, Vivien Allen, Hall Caine: portrait of a Victorian romancer

present singular third person Shakespeares · participle present Shakespearing · participle past Shakespeared · past Shakespeared · alternative obsolete Shakespere · alternative obsolete Shakspeare · alternative obsolete Shakspere

1. intransitiveTo act or perform in a play of the works of Shakespeare.